A TRIUMPHANT SAVIOUR
[p. 89] A TRIUMPHANT SAVIOUR
The whole gospel of Luke may be epitomised in one verse of Scripture: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him” (Acts 10: 38). The Son of God is seen here in lowly grace, and in the mighty power of God, triumphing over all the power of sin and Satan, and removing the effects of that power by which man was oppressed. It is really God coming in on behalf of man against all the power of evil under which man has fallen. In short, it is the revelation of God as a Saviour God.
Man as a fallen creature is strong to do evil, powerless to do good, and in consequence subject to death. He is the slave of the power of sin, he suffers from the plague of sin, and he is subject to the penalty of sin. The Lord Jesus is here presented to us, in figure, as One who can break the power of sin, heal the plague of sin, and abolish the penalty of sin.
I take this poor demoniac in Luke 8 as a figure of man controlled by the active energy of evil. He was the slave and victim of an evil power which he had no will to resist, and from whose tyranny he could not escape. He might fancy himself strong and free to take his own course, but he was really altogether yielded to the evil power that controlled him.
How solemn is that word of the Lord, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant [slave] of sin!” (John 8: 34). Surely this comes home to every conscience. Then again the Spirit of God says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants [slaves] [p. 90] to obey, his servants [slaves] ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6: 16). Sin is a terrible power to which man yields his affections and energies, and by which he is carried along in disobedience and independence of God. Men think that they are only giving effect to their own desires as they live in self-will, but in reality they are yielding themselves to a power of evil which is bent on their destruction.
Looking at the demoniac as a figure of man yielded to the power of sin, I want to call attention to three facts about him.
1. He “ware no clothes”. Clothing in Scripture is symbolical of righteousness. For example, it is written, “He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61: 10). It is because man has fallen under the power of sin that righteousness is necessary for him. Man in innocence needed no clothing. But the moment Adam had sinned, he became conscious that he needed something to fit him for God’s presence. When once sin had come in there could be no return to innocence, and man’s need could only be met by “the gift of righteousness” (Romans 5: 17). No self-made aprons of fig-leaves will suffice; man’s most earnest efforts to put himself right are unavailing, and in spite of them all he remains “naked” before God.
But “unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). On this early page of man’s history we see, in striking picture, righteousness provided by God for man, and this upon the ground of the death of another. Man can only have righteousness on the ground that sin’s full penalty has been paid. Christ has died for Sinners, so that as risen from the dead He might become the righteousness of all who believe. Those who believe on God, who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, receive “the gift of righteousness”. Christ is the believer’s righteousness (see 1 Corinthians 1: 30; Romans 10: 4). Have you received this priceless gift? Or are you still, as a guilty and wilful sinner, “found naked” before God?
2. He dwelt “in the tombs”. Man as yielded to the power of sin was driven out of Paradise (Genesis 3: 24) into a world characterised by defilement and death, and Adam’s children dwell there unto this day. Death has “passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”; its blight rests on every pleasure, on every accession of wealth or honour, on all that is dear to man’s heart. Soon — very soon — all must be left. Death follows hard upon the footsteps of those who walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Mercy may hold him back for a season, but soon death’s rough hand will be laid upon the sinner — the one who is a servant “of sin unto death”.
3. He wanted nothing to do with Jesus. This is the crowning proof that man is the willing servant of the power of evil. Not only does he rebel against God’s authority and transgress God’s commandments, but when God comes near to him in grace as a Saviour God he despises and rejects Him. If I were asked to give an example of the power of sin I would not point to the thief, the drunkard, or the profligate. These are examples patent to every eye. I would rather describe an upright, amiable, and altogether well-behaved person, who prefers the world and its things to the Lord Jesus Christ and the all-blessing grace of God. Little things, and what people call innocent things, may keep the soul from Christ. But can anything be called innocent that keeps a precious and immortal soul from the knowledge of God in grace? No! depend upon it, that which does so is nothing but the awful power of sin, however it may disguise itself. Little things that hold the heart in the world are often more deadly than greater evils, for the conscience slumbers over them while grave iniquities would awaken it to activity.
[p. 92] But is there not deliverance for man from this terrible power of evil under which he has fallen? Yes, thank God, there is, and we see it pictured in the scene before us. Deliverance came to the poor demoniac in the Person and power of the Lord Jesus. There was One who could bid the demons depart and restore their unhappy victim to “his right mind”. How blessed to see this! There is a gracious power by which man may be set free from the power of evil; and that gracious power is set forth by the gospel unto all men. It is made available for men. The gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1: 16).
God’s deliverance for man is set forth in His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. God has taken into consideration the whole state of men as under the power of sin, and has provided everything in grace for their relief and blessing. And those who receive this grace obtain freedom from the power of sin.
In the first place God furnishes righteousness for man through the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes no claim upon us, but sets One before us who suffered for sins upon the cross, and who, as made sin for us, has glorified God, so that repentance and remission of sins might be proclaimed to us in His name. He provides righteousness for us in a risen Saviour, and declares that “by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13: 39).
Then, further, in revealing Himself as a Saviour, God has shown that it is His pleasure to have men in His favour. If the earthly Eden is for ever lost, another and a fairer scene is thrown open. For the favour into which men are brought by the grace of God is nothing less than that which rests upon the risen Christ. If we are justified by faith, and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we are also entitled through Him to “have access into this [p. 93] grace [favour] wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5: 1, 2). What a contrast to “the tombs”! The psalmist could say, “In his favour is life weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30: 5). The believer’s life is in the favour of God, and the object of his hope is the glory of God.
God, thus known in infinite grace, becomes the joy and boast of those who believe. We “joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. As a Saviour God He has provided for our need. He has relieved us of all that pressed upon us. He has justified us, set us in His favour according to the acceptance of Christ, and enriched us with abundance of grace. It is in this wondrous and blessed grace that God is revealed in the gospel. Does it attract your heart? Are you glad to think that God is such a One? Will you not turn now to the God who has thus in grace provided every blessing for man? All, all may be yours. This infinite grace is for all who will receive it as a divine gift through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The delivered man, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind, presents a lovely picture of the effect produced when a man comes “under grace”. The power bf evil no longer controls him; he has found relief and peace and blessing in the knowledge of God; and he now yields himself to God as one who is alive from the dead, and his members as instruments of righteousness to God (Romans 6: 13, 14).
Sin is a power terrible as that of a legion of demons, but it is also a plague in the soul which renders men incapable of doing the will of God, even when, through grace, they have a desire to do what is good. The woman with the issue of blood represents the weakness of the flesh. She had a strong desire to be well, and to escape from the disabilities of her condition, but she had to prove that all human aid was in [p. 94] vain. Thus she represented one who is born anew, and has the will to do good, but not the power (Romans 7: 18 - 24).
The secret history of many a soul is portrayed in that of this woman. Their conduct may be exemplary to a high degree, their practical life almost blameless, and yet they have the abiding consciousness of weakness and failure. They have an acute sense of the claims of divine holiness, and a crushing weight of self-condemnation rests on their spirits as they realise their own terrible imperfection. They are ready to turn to anything that seems to promise more power, but every expedient fails them. They have to learn that there is nothing but death in themselves (Romans 7: 24), and that they must find the power of life in Another.
She “came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched”. The moment she came into connection with Him there was an end of the infirmity. “Virtue” went out of Him for her healing. We have to realise that in us, that is, in our flesh, good does not dwell, but we find grace and power in Another — in Christ Jesus. On our side we need everything: on His side there is the supply of everything. All divine resources of grace and strength for the support and succour of saints reside in Him. How good it is to touch the border of His garment — to come into connection with all the gracious power that resides in Him! The moment we look altogether away from ourselves for deliverance and the power of life we find it in Him. When we really come to the consciousness that we need a deliverer outside ourselves, we find One in Him (see Romans 7: 24, 25).
And “virtue” comes out of Him by the Spirit for our support. All His grace and sufficiency are made good to us by the Spirit. In this way we are made capable for the will of God, so that “the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8: 4). Thus by divine grace and power we are made superior to the weakness of the flesh. The plague, in that sense, is healed. Not that flesh is made spiritual; it remains flesh; but by the power of Christ through the Spirit we are sustained in superiority to its weakness.
The third feature of man’s condition as a fallen creature is that he is subject to death, the penalty of sin. Of this we have a figure in the daughter of Jairus, and in connection with her being raised up we see a picture of the Lord Jesus as the One who “hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1: 10). Any measure of grace or mercy which stopped short of removing the penalty of sin would be of small value to man. Yet there are many people who think highly of providential mercies, but hardly bestow a thought on the grace that has come in to relieve men of the penalty of sin.
The way which grace took to effect this great deliverance is suggested by the words, “he took her by the hand”. The blessed Son of God came into personal contact with death. One who was personally exempt from death became subject to it by the grace of God. There was no mitigation of the penalty when the sinless One was made sin for us. But the greatness and glory of His Person were the sure pledge of complete victory. It was not possible that He could be holden of death. The fact that He went into it ensured complete deliverance for all who believe on Him. He has annulled death, and now life and incorruptibility are brought to light in Him, the risen and glorified Saviour. The penalty of sin has been removed in the death of Christ for all who believe on His name, and “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6: 23).
May God bring you to know this triumphant Saviour, in whom there is such a perfect and divine answer to all your need as a sinner.